Mountain bikers accuse parks officials of banning them from trails in new Marin County plan

They arrived on their mountain bikes and soon had Marin County Parks officials backpedaling on Saturday at a sometimes contentious workshop on the county's draft version of its controversial new road and trail management plan.

Mountain bikers, most of them dressed in their riding gear, were a large number of the people who filled a conference room at the Marin County Health and Wellness Campus in San Rafael.

During question periods in the three-hour-long morning session, they had county parks administrators on the defensive, accusing them of devising a plan that displaces them from narrow single-track trails they have traditionally shared with hikers and horseback riders.

"The plan appears to be "arbitrarily front-loaded against cyclists," said mountain biker Kevin Pedersen. "Bikes are being seen as an exception, not subject to the same objective criteria as other users. It specifically targets bicyclists."

County Parks Director and General Manager Linda Dahl denied the accusations, pointing out that county "policies allow for separate, segregated use" of trails.

"We just haven't selected them yet," she said. "This process is the way we will select them."

Pedersen shot back, "That's not what I'm saying. I'm talking about shared use. Equestrians are one percent of the users, and yet 25 to 50 percent of the users, cyclists, are disproportionately being banned from the trails."

At one point, Dahl chided cyclists after they applauded comments in favor of more bike access.

"It's really rude to clap and cheer and boo and jeer," she said. "So please don't do it."

The heated exchanges came after a long powerpoint presentation by Carl Somers, newly-hired chief of planning and acquisition for county parks, and former chief of planning and resources Elise Holland.

They covered recent revisions to the draft road and trail management plan and an overview of the evaluation tools and the various criteria that must be considered under state law in developing it.

At one juncture, Dahl interrupted the presentation, saying to the audience, "Sitting in the back, I saw eyeballs rolling back in peoples' heads. For those of you who don't understand what we do for a living, you can't build a trail in the state of California without going through this. It's illegal."

After the session, mountain bikers had not been placated by the explanations they heard.

"I don't hear them building a progressive document that's going to capture the change in the demographic," said bike advocate Vernon Huffman. "They're not addressing it. We're here again with probably 70 percent of the representation and they're stonewalling us with thinly-veiled concepts. They won't come out and say we're going to take care of it for you guys in a safe and ecological manner."

Speaking for county parks, Somers, the new chief of planning, countered that argument, saying "Between the fire roads and the multi-use trails that are open to bicycles, roughly 75 percent of the signed and managed trail system right now is open to bicyclists. We understand that there is a lot of demand and desire to have a greater diversity of mountain biking opportunities, and that there is specifically a desire to have more of those opportunities in the open space district."

He said the series of workshops is intended to create "a process that is collaborative and transparent and will result in a more diverse set of experiences for all user groups. That has been a goal of the plan from the very beginning. It's got to be a system that works for everybody which, of course, is the most difficult thing about running a system like this."

Saturday's workshop was the 11th on the trail plan. There are six more to come.